a response

“i don’t know who the koch brothers are. i dont care who they are. yes, everybody chip in – even the 50% of citizens that don’t currently pay a dime in federal taxes. stop freeloading and expecting to rich to pay all for all you…r welfare programs. pay attention in school, work hard, get good grades, take advantage of the opportunities to attend college.. get a job, maybe 2 or 3. stop having babies you can’t afford. stop buying shit u don’t need. you want a good life? earn it. no more handouts and the insane spending to fund these handouts. tired of your excuses. stop blaming everybody else and look in the mirror. the rich should not have to support the lazy asses that have no goals in life.” – David Kerbaugh

Okay, I’m sorry but I can’t stop thinking about the above quote. I tried to ignore it because it is so irrational, given that David was arguing “against” taxes. But I can’t. My failing I know, but my conscience keeps reminding me of an old WWII saying about what happens when you ignore fascism and extremism. As a free society, we have an obligation to stand up against extremism and hold to our values.

So, David and all of you who are of like mind, most of us are chipping in. We get up everyday and go to work or look for work once our jobs have disappeared. We pay our bills, love our families, put our kids through school and encourage them to do well, save for their educations and our retirement, and are loyal, hardworking employees. We’ve done everything right and everything expected of us. Then someone like you comes along and says that we’re not good enough. You say we should pay more while at the same time you stand up for tax breaks for millionaires.

Tell me, if your Mom earned $13K from social security or a pension, would you demand she pay more in taxes while you tell millionaires they should pay less percentage wise? I seriously doubt it.

The rich do not support lazy people. They are just being asked to pay their “fair share” of the expenses required for a civilized, fair and just society. A society which enjoys the luxury of mass-transit; public schools to enable every child to reach his or her dream; safe water to drink and clean air to breathe; food and medicines that won’t make us sick or kill us; air, water and highway travel that keep us safe; to live out our elder age in some modest form of financial security and to know if we get sick we’re not destined to die or bankrupt our families; and the God-given right to achieve our own potential. This is what human progress is all about.

It’s what the great philosophers wrote about and from whom our founding fathers took their ideas of liberty and justice for all. Would you now, through you hatred and selfishness, deny our founders that dream of a “more perfect union?” That community of people united in a common cause to create a society based on individual freedoms, yet united in serving the needs of their neighbors.

What makes this county unique and truly great amongst all civilizations is that we have the moral courage to say “we are a community,” regardless of race, creed, color, religion, gender, or sexual orientation. We are one community, and because of the high moral documents our founders left us, we have chosen over the last three centuries to create an even more perfect and humane society within this vast community.

We’re far from perfect, given the imperfections of human nature. But we struggle against the darker forces of humanity year after year, decade after decade, to perfect our community. To help those in need, to say “no” to those who give into the forces of darkness – greed, lust and selfishness, and to ensure that all people, regardless of wealth or status, are treated honorably and fairly and with respect. Anything less denies what our forefathers, yours and mine, fought and died for.

No one is asking the wealthy to support anyone. All anyone asks of the wealthy is to pick up the mantle of community and recognize their responsibility to the community: to whom so much has been given, so much is owed. We owe it to all of our future generations to end the divisive, selfish, ego-centric climb for self adoration and recognize the need to come together as a community to fulfill the dream of our fathers. To create a more perfect and more just country.